Danny Boyle's latest film delighted audiences at the London Film Festival and it's not hard to see why. Imbued with the director's trademark energy the film offers up a tantalising conundrum: how did Jamal (C4's Skins Dev Patel), an ignorant orphan from the slums reach the penultimate question on the Indian version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?
Well if you're Mumbai's police department, the answer is by cheating, of course. And this is how we are introduced to Jamal, as he is brutally interrogated into a confession he refuses to give - because he is in fact telling the truth.
In a series of childhood flashbacks he explains to the police, and us, just how he came to coincidentally know the answers to the obscure questions posed to him by quizmaster Prem (Bollywood superstar Anil Kapoor) - and what a rollercoaster ride it is.
Boyle does not flinch from showing us the crushing poverty and merciless cruelty of life in the slums, nor should he. Through this we understand the fraught relationship with his troubled brother and his relentless devotion to fellow slum orphan Latika (Freida Pinto).
When the hostile inspector finally satisfied with Jamal's explanation he is returned to the game show to face the final question and chance to win 20 million rupees. But does he know the answer?
Simon Beaufoy (The Full Monty) adapted the screenplay from a series of short stories by Vikas Swarup and it's to his credit that the script avoids any kind of stale contrivance to be engaging and clever throughout.
Slumdog Millionaire is likely to be one of those rare gems that satisfy everybody, populist audiences and intelligentsia alike. The only gripe would be that its mawkish ending (pre-credits) feels indulgent and slightly misjudged in an otherwise accomplished film.
Kate Coffey
